This is a recording from May of 2009. I was working in Garage Band and feeling I could do better. I spent about a year in Garage Band before deciding to take some classes at Berklee Online. That was the start of my switch to Pro Tools and the system I have now.

I found this song on an old Jim Croce recording. I was working with Mark Young on a Jim Croce tribute show (Mark has sound files on his site), and he had a ton of material, obscure home recordings, and unreleased studio tracks. This is an old blues tune and came from an album released after Jim’s death, I think it was called “Home Recordings.” I traced it back to a 1931 Tampa Red 78 record “Things Is Bout Comin My Way.” Maybe it originated there, I don’t have the patience to go back further.

I set this up as a form for soloing and kept solos to one chorus, so instruments switch frequently.

My horn band, Stone-Barone and The Mad Tones was recording at my friend Alans house. We got about 8 songs down in the course of the evening and now owe Alan a big favor!

I added some things to the straight live performance. I added parallel compression to the bass and snare drums. This gives the beat a little more punch. I added an eighth note delay to Beccas voice (the lead voice). This gives her track more ‘width’ and helps her stand out. I put a slap echo on the background vocals to give them more fullness. Last, reverb on the snare and drum overheads. This helps with the sense of space and puts everything in the same room.

Because it is not obvious, I’ll mention that I am playing electric guitar through the rig that Spoons loaned me. An Axe-FX Ultra. The sound quality is, well, I don’t have enough good words for it; pristine, unmatchable, perfect. This sound processor will inspire me to spend more time recording.

This is a song from the praise band I work with called Echoes Of Grace here in Verona. The church had bought a new digital mixer (an Allen&Heath GLD 112) and some digital recording software. We recorded a service using all the new equipment and I took the tracks home and mixed them through my rig.

This is a sound piece I worked on in collaboration with a guy I met online. I only know him as “Dwarf”. He uploaded his piece on Groovezoo. He had the sound effects and poem up front and the bass line and beat at the end.

I added an acoustic guitar to frame the chord progression, a slide guitar for texture and lead guitar for melody. Another listen led me to add a second electric guitar part for counter melody and variety.

I like this kind of project and would like to do more. It would be fun to collaborate with a group of poets and musicians and put out an album.

This piece is very similar to my piece, The Bell. We worked this out 2011, three years after I put together The Bell.